Environmental Sustainability of Water Projects
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Third World Centre for Water Management Environmental Sustainability of Water Projects Cecilia Tortajada Doctoral Thesis Division of Hydraulic Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm 2001 Contents Preface I. Introduction 1 II. Environmental Sustainability of Water Projects 6 III. Southeastern Anatolia Project: Impacts of the 28 Ataturk dam IV. Resettlement: An Essential Component of Water 79 Development Projects V. Institutions for Integrated River Basin Management 120 in Latin America VI. Conclusions 151 Annex I. Stockholm Declaration on Human Environment, 1972 Annex II. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992 Preface This doctoral thesis represents an extension of the research work that was carried out for the licentiate thesis earlier on the issue of “Approaches to Environmental Sustainability for Water Resources Management: A Case Study of Mexico”. It is thus desirable that this doctoral thesis is read in conjunction with the licentiate thesis to ensure continuity and a better perspective on the overall analysis of the environmental sustainability of water projects. The licentiate thesis focused on the approaches to environmental sustainability of water management in terms of a case study for Mexico. It was the first ever comprehensive analysis of the environmental policies of the water sector in Mexico, as well as an in-depth analysis of all the environmental impact assessment reports that have been conducted in the country. It is important to note that no other analysis of the environmental assessments studies of any other sector of the country is available at present. This thesis already has generated considerable interest for conducting similar comprehensive in-depth analyses for the water sector of other Latin American countries. The doctoral thesis reviews the evolution of the concepts that are currently being used for water management. Concepts like sustainable development and environmental sustainability are analysed, as well as their status of implementation, and the reasons for their success or failures. Several case studies are presented on different important aspects of environmental sustainability. These include the role of institutions, effectiveness of legal frameworks, participation of stakeholders, contributions of water development projects to regional development, consideration of environmental and social issues, and impacts of social and environmental movements. I am indeed most grateful to Prof. Klas Cederwall, Chairman, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, for his unstinted support during my entire research, on which the present report is based. Without his continued support and encouragement, it simply would not have been possible to carry out this research. I would also like to express my indebtedness to Prof. Asit K. Biswas, President, Third World Centre for Water Management, Mexico, for his support, advice and encouragement to complete this research. Many friends and colleagues from different countries of the world have assisted me in numerous ways during the course of this research. I am most grateful for all their help. Cecilia Tortajada I. INTRODUCTION At the dawn of the 21st century, it is being increasingly realised that water could be the dominant resource issue at least for the first part of the present century. Water is essential for human survival, not only in terms of drinking and hygiene, but also to ensure agricultural and industrial development, electricity generation, navigation and ecosystem protection. Since amount of freshwater that can be used at any time is constrained by economic, technological and environmental reasons, it is essential that existing water resources be managed efficiently and equitably in terms of both quantity and quality, at local, regional and national levels. As population and human activities continue to increase, water management is becoming more and more complex. Incremental advances in management practices and business as usual are no longer viable options for the future. Thus, sustainability of water development has become a critical issue for the future. While there is now broad agreement globally among water professionals that sustainability of water resources is an essential requirement, our current knowledge-base on how to achieve this ambitious goal of sustainability leave much to be desired. In the area of water resources, the dominant trend of the decades of the 1970s and 1980s was on the construction of infrastructures. During the early 1990s, the focus shifted to the management of water resources, but it was still largely based on sectoral lines. By the end of the 1990s, integrated water resources management became an important trend, with a broader multisectoral approach, and consideration of social and environmental issues. Stakeholder participation is now considered to be an important component of water resources planning and management. It is being recognised that many of the activities related to integrated water resources management like demand management, efficient and equitable allocation of water among uses and between users, environmental and social impacts, stakeholders participation, etc., have little in common with a paradigm which focused mainly on the construction of hydraulic infrastructures. It is further being recognised that in order to achieve integrated water resources management, appropriate functional institutions would have to be developed, with adequate managerial and technical expertise, and financial resources. Concepts like sustainable development and integrated river basin management have proved to be appealing, and have received widespread global acceptance from national and international institutions in recent years. However, while concepts like integrated water resources management or sustainable development have become popular, and are extensively mentioned in national and regional policies and international discussions, their effective incorporation and implementation in national policies, programmes and projects, have proved to be extremely difficult, irrespective of the country concerned. These concepts have attracted special attention following the International Conference on Water and Environment in Dublin, and the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, both held in 1992. 1 There are many reasons for these shortcomings, among which are inadequate institutional and legal frameworks for integrating environment- and development-related issues, highly centralised decision-making, absence of political and administrative will to change the status quo, lack of adequate number of qualified and trained managerial and technical personnel, non-availability of financial resources on a timely basis, etc. In addition, processes like decentralisation and privatisation have yet to produce results that are expected from them in most countries: more efficient water distribution and treatment services, encouragements of local initiatives, active participation of water users, generation of new investments funds, and regular involvement of diversified actors. The environmental sustainability of water projects is a very complex issue, and no effective ways have yet been found to operationalise it. The best that can be achieved at present is to identify certain issues which could contribute to unsustainability, and then try to ensure that these factors are taken care of. It is also agreed that economic, social and environmental benefits of any project should far outweigh the costs on both short- and long-term basis. The nature of the beneficiaries, that is who benefits and who pays the costs, has become an important consideration to decide on the implementation of the water projects. Issues like efficient management, institutional strengthening, education, training, communication and information are now receiving as much importance as the construction of the projects themselves. All these can be considered to be positive development. However, how all these complex tasks can be successfully achieved, and even if they are achieved, if they will contribute to sustainability, are still open questions, for which still no definitive answers exist. Among many issues, there are some important aspects which should be considered simultaneously within the context of environmental sustainability of water projects. a) Short-term versus long-term considerations, where the time-frame for sustainability should be defined, and where there should be considerable flexibility in terms of the type of projects considered. b) Externalities, which should be internalised, at least conceptually, through taxes, subsidies and regulations. So far, it has not been easy to internalise the externalities in developing countries for four important reasons: methodologically, calculations of the precise value of externalities have proved to be a difficult task; externalities may or may not receive support due to political reasons; externalities could develop steadily over time, and thus there could be a time gap before those affected realise the real costs they may have to pay, directly or indirectly; and regulations to control such externalities in nearly all developing countries have proved to be somewhat ineffective and expensive. c) Risks and uncertainties associated with managing systems to ensure they are sustainable indefinitely. It is necessary to identify which parameters define the inherent sustainability of water systems so that 2 they